What accounted for Georgia’s prosperity in the antebellum period?
Cotton boom + enslaved labor + expanding rail/market access (cotton became king; removal of Native lands and land lotteries opened acreage)
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| What accounted for Georgia’s prosperity in the antebellum period? | Cotton boom + enslaved labor + expanding rail/market access (cotton became king; removal of Native lands and land lotteries opened acreage) |
| What were the major forms of transportation during the antebellum period? | Rivers/steamboats, dirt roads/turnpikes, stagecoaches, and railroads. |
| What were some advances in transportation during the antebellum period? | Steamboats, canals in some regions, and rapid railroad construction that linked interior towns to ports and markets. |
| How was the Western and Atlantic Railroad different from the Central Railroad and the Georgia Railroad? | The Western & Atlantic was a state‑owned north–south line (Atlanta → Chattanooga); the Central and Georgia lines were privately chartered regional lines linking Savannah–Macon and Augusta–Columbus respectively (private vs. state ownership and different routes) |
| Who invented the cotton gin and what impact did it have on Georgia? | Eli Whitney (1793). The gin made upland cotton profitable, triggered massive cotton expansion across Georgia, and deepened reliance on slavery |
| Outline the major groups within southern society. Provide a brief description of each. | Planter elite: large slaveholders, political/economic leaders. Small slaveholders/yeoman farmers: owned few slaves or none; local leaders. Poor whites/landless: subsistence farmers, little political power. Free persons of color: small middle class with limited rights. Enslaved people: forced labor majority in plantation economy |
| Explain why Free Persons of Color were said to inhabit a “middle ground.” | They were neither enslaved nor fully equal to whites—they had some legal rights, property, and trades but faced racial restrictions and discrimination, placing them socially between whites and enslaved people |
| Explain the difference between the task system and the gang labor system. | Task system: each enslaved person had a daily quota; when finished they had limited free time. Gang system: groups worked under overseers from dawn to dusk with strict supervision; more common on large cotton plantations |
| What type of work did most slaves in Georgia perform? | Field agricultural labor (planting, cultivating, and harvesting cotton, rice, and other crops), plus skilled trades, domestic service, and seasonal tasks |
| What were the advantages for a slave living on a large plantation? | Slightly better access to food, medical care, larger slave communities, and specialized skilled work (but still under harsh control and violence) |
| Even though slavery had existed even before the creation of the U.S., what caused the issue of slavery to become so divisive during the antebellum period? | Cotton expansion, westward territorial disputes, and rising Northern abolitionism turned slavery from a regional institution into a national political crisis over expansion, rights, and labor systems |
| How did South Carolina seek to avoid tariff enforcement? | Nullification — declared federal tariffs null and threatened to resist enforcement and secede if forced; this produced the Nullification Crisis (early 1830s) |
| What important position did Howell Cobb hold during the negotiations for a compromise in 1849-1850? | Speaker of the U.S. House (Dec 1849–Mar 1851) and a leading Southern congressman during debates over the Compromise of 1850 |
| What position did Georgia take regarding the Compromise of 1850? | Georgia accepted the Compromise conditionally and later adopted the Georgia Platform endorsing the Compromise as final but warning against future Northern encroachments |
| What did the South gain with the Compromise of 1850? | A stronger Fugitive Slave Act, federal concessions on territorial organization (popular sovereignty for New Mexico/Utah), and no immediate federal ban on slavery in new territories |
| Explain the origins of the Georgia Platform. What did it state? Why is it significant? | Adopted in Dec 1850 (Milledgeville), written largely by Charles J. Jenkins; it accepted the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement while warning that further Northern attacks on Southern rights would justify resistance — it temporarily held Georgia (and much of the South) to the Union and shaped sectional politics |
| How had Georgia changed between 1850-1860? | Rapid population growth, expanded rail network, increased cotton production, deeper reliance on slavery, and westward county development — Georgia became a leading cotton/ slave state by 1860 |
| Who was Joseph Brown? How did he convince nonslaveholders that they had an interest in maintaining and protecting slavery? | Joseph E. Brown (Georgia governor 1857–65) appealed to yeoman interests by arguing slavery protected white labor standards, local security, and access to markets — linking nonslaveholders’ prosperity to the slave system and sectional solidarity |
| Which Georgian ran on Stephen Douglas’ presidential ticket in 1860? | Herschel V. Johnson was Douglas’s vice‑presidential running mate in 1860 |
| In what ways did the Confederate Constitution differ from the US Constitution? | Emphasized state sovereignty, explicitly protected slavery (and the slave trade), limited central tariff and internal improvements powers, and placed a single six‑year presidential term with a line‑item veto for the president — overall it strengthened states’ rights and protected slavery more explicitly |